faculty profile

With over 26 years of rich experience, Prof. Umashankar Venkatesh is an educational entrepreneur, who has helped launch many institutions of higher learning in his career. He has helped set-up five institutions of higher learning in India, both public and private, enacting key leadership roles in conceptualizing, designing, implementing and managing, innovative study programs - with many international partners viz. Lancaster Univ. UK; Oxford Brookes Univ. UK; Bradford Univ. UK; Greenwich Univ. UK etc. He was also offered Adjunct Professorship at the CUNY, USA in 2004.

With a Ph.D. in Management (Consumer Behavior), he holds Postgraduate qualifications in Management as well as Agricultural Economics. His areas of interest include – (International) Consumer Behavior, Marketing of Services, Rural Marketing, Strategic Marketing etc.

He is on the Editorial Board of various research journals. He has authored a book on Services Management; has many research publications to his credit. Has designed & conducted training programs for – business managers, academicians, civil servants and NGO functionaries in the areas of customer centricity, service orientation, organizational design, ethics, institution building etc. He promotes research by being a PhD supervisor and examiner for many universities along with reviewer of reputed journals viz. Vikalpa (IIM-A); Global Business Review (Sage); Emerald Group Publishing, Journal of Services Research etc.

He has also incubated on, a personal basis, numerous small and medium sized enterprises along with his students, and is currently still attached to some of them in an advisory capacity. Prior joining Great Lakes, he was with IMI (International Management Institute), Delhi as Professor and Area Chair of Marketing.

Consulting & Advisor Attachments with Industry

Brand and Strategy Advisor – Bunkaari India; a retail chain of stores involved in promoting ethnic Indian weaves and fabrics by artisans across India

Venkatesh, U. (2009) Consumerism and consumer behaviour in the service economy – The changing face of the Indian consumer, in Consumer Protection in India: Emerging Perspectives. Eds. S.S. Singh, S. Misra, K. Bhatt and S. Chadha, New Delhi: Indian Institute of Public Administration.

Bandopadhyay, R. and Venkatesh, U. (2013) Supply of finance in small and medium industries of India: A demand side perspective. Global Conference on Service Management. Auro University, Surat and Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts, USA. 4-5 January 2014.

Venkatesh, U., Dutta, K. and Misra, K. (2008) Service quality perceptions of customers of organized retail in India – A customer service context, presented at the International Conference on Services Management – 2008, May 9-10, Penn State University, U.S.A.

Venkatesh, U., Dutta, K., Choi, G. and Parsa, H.G. (2007) A Comparative study of consumers’ green practice orientation in India and the United States, presented in the International Conference on Services Management – 2007, June 1-2, New Delhi, India.

Venkatesh, U. and Dutta, Kirti (2006) Foreign direct investment in the Indian real estate sector – Problems and prospects, presented in the 4th Annual International Conference on Globalization & Sectoral Development jointly organized by the Academy of International Business (AIB) and the Institute for Integrated Learning in Management (IILM), New Delhi, India, 17-19 February 2006, New Delhi, India.

Venkatesh, U. (2006) Pre-purchase information search sources of leisure tourists in India: Some conclusions, presented at the conference: Cutting Edge Research in Tourism – New Directions, Challenges and Applications, organized by the School of Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, 6-9th June 2006, Guildford, U.K.

Venkatesh, U. (2005) Leisure - meaning and impact on leisure travel behavior. Paper awarded with the Editors’ Choice Award at the International Conference on Services Management – 2005, March 11-12, New Delhi, India.

Venkatesh, U. and Misra, K. (2001) Issues in imparting professional education: Lessons for economies in transition - A case study of India, annual conference on – New Horizons in Business Education – Lessons from Economies in Transition - of the European Council for Business Education, held at Moscow, June 8-10, 2001; paper subsequently published as lead paper in the proceedings.

Venkatesh, U. and Chaklader, B. (2001) Green marketing: A systems perspective to global corporate marketing, presented at the International Conference on Globalization of Business and Markets - Strategies for the 21st Century, at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India, December 20-22, 2001.

Misra, K. and Venkatesh, U.(1996) The state of local city finances in India, presented in the National Workshop on the State of Local Finances in India, at the National Institute for Rural Development, Hyderabad, India, December 1996

Venkatesh, U. (1995) Material resource planning for small scale industries, presented in the National Workshop on Materials Management, Faculty of Management Studies, B.H.U., India, September 1995.

Venkatesh, U., Lal, S.K., Gupta, S.B.L. and Kushwaha, S. (1989) Growth and area response of Rapeseed and Mustard, presented at the 48th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, 13-15 Oct., 1988.